Two Robeson County men were convicted of unrelated murders last week, one in a state about a thousand miles away and the other in a neighboring county.
Christopher Murray, a 39-year-old from Red Springs, was found guilty Friday of murder in the 2017 death of a man in Millinocket, Maine, after a jury spent about five hours deliberating following four days of testimony.
Wayne Lapierre, 59, and Diem Lapierre, now 34, were shot Dec. 19 of that year in the basement of their home in Millinocket. Wayne Lapierre died three days later in a Bangor hospital. Diem, a Vietnam native, survived despite being shot twice in the head and testified during the trial.
Murray, who displayed no emotion as the verdict was read, was also found guilty of aggravated assault and robbery. Relatives, including his mother, sat quietly while the verdict was read.
Murray and two others from Robeson County were charged with the crime.
Murray was arrested Dec. 27, 2017, and was extradited to Maine. Alexis Locklear, 21, of Maxton, and her father Tony Locklear, 44, of Pembroke, were later charged. Tony Locklear had lived in East Millinocket and worked for the Lapierres remodeling a house.
Wayne Lapierre was a licensed medical marijuana grower and also owned other businesses.
Testimony showed that Murray went to the house to rob Lapierre with Alexis Locklear, his girlfriend, and her father after they had driven up from North Carolina. They left with two buckets of marijuana, about $500 in cash, and rings stolen from Diem Lapierre.
The state claimed the men planned the assault and robbery, while Murray’s defense team argued that Tony Locklear hatched the plan.
Diem Lapierre wept as she testified Tuesday through a translator, and said Murray was the man who shot her in the head as she sat next to her husband on the floor of the master bedroom in their basement.
“I said, ‘Please don’t kill me. Please don’t kill me,’” she said. “I have two young children to care for and a mother who is 75. They were cold and evil.”
She recounted how Murray took a pillow and shot her through it. She fell onto her husband and heard the two shots fired that killed him. One of the men later shot her again.
She was unconscious for about 30 minutes, but was able to untie herself and call 911.
Diem Lapierre lost her left eye and has two bullets lodged in her brain.
Alexis Locklear pleaded guilty recently to robbery. Her plea agreement called for a charge of felony murder to be dropped and for her to be sentenced to time served.
Tony Locklear, who pleaded guilty on Jan. 4 to the same charges on which Murray was tried, also faces murder and first-degree kidnapping charges from December 2017 in Robeson County.
Tony Locklear is charged here with murder, first-degree kidnapping and conspiracy to commit first-degree kidnapping in the death of Braxton Chavis Jr. He was found dead the night of Dec. 4, 2016, in woods off Alma Road.
The Locklears and Murray had been held without bail at the Penobscot County Jail since their arrests.
The penalty for murder in Maine is 25 years to life in prison. The penalty for Class A robbery is up to 30 years in prison and a fine of up to $50,000.
In Bladen County, Christopher Baldwin, 28, of Lumberton, was found guilty Friday following a week-long trial of first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, discharging a firearm into an occupied vehicle, and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, plus an additional 16 years.
The case stemmed from a deadly shooting on Nov. 8, 2015, in Elizabethtown at the intersection of Twisted Hickory and Center roads.
Testimony indicated that Baldwin, along with co-defendant Montise Mitchell, fired multiple shots from a handgun at a vehicle driven by Darrell Council. One of the shots hit Council, killing him.
Baldwin was one of four people charged in the case. Testimony and text messages revealed that Mitchell used his sister, Shanika Mitchell, and his girlfriend to lure Council and another man to the Mitchells’ home on Center Road.
Shortly after Council dropped the two women off at the home, Baldwin and Mitchell opened fire on Council’s vehicle as it approached a stop sign. The men fired 21 shots — eight by Mitchell and 13 by Baldwin.
An occupant in Council’s vehicle managed to escape the shooting unharmed and called 911 after Council’s SUV crashed into a ditch along Center Road.
Montise Mitchell and his sister Shanika Mitchell were both given life sentences in previous trials for their roles in the murder. The fourth co-defendant entered a guilty plea to accessory after the fact to first-degree murder and was sentenced to 65 to 90 months in prison.
